Environmentalists claim: “The car industry is opposing EU CO2 targets. It will cost us an extra 74 billion”

Brussels – The automotive industry is seeking changes to the European mobility agenda by calling for a reduction in CO2 emission targets, a move that could, however, cost an additional €74 billion. The criticism comes from Transport & Environment (T&E), the umbrella organisation for NGOs for sustainable transport, which criticises the decision to scale back ambitions for electric vehicles in order to continue focusing on traditional fossil fuel-based solutions, a choice deemed “irresponsible” in light of the rise in petrol and diesel prices as a result of the war in Iran. 

T&E has obtained a confidential document drafted by ACEA, the European Automobile Manufacturers’ Association, and sent to EU environment ministers to relax emissions regulations. Environmentalists argue that “lower targets would deprive motorists of more affordable electric models, at precisely the moment when we need to reduce our dependence on oil.” 

In essence, the automotive industry is calling for the EU’s CO2 emission reduction targets to be averaged over five years (2028–2032) rather than three years (2030–2032) as envisaged by the European Commission. A proposal that amounts to a “significant weakening” of the strategy, T&E further claims, arguing that if ACEA’s demands were accepted, sales of electric cars “could remain stuck at the current market share of 21 per cent for the rest of the decade, instead of reaching the 57 per cent currently projected for 2030 under existing legislation.” 

Furthermore, the industry is calling for the planned update to the utility factor to be “reconsidered and scrapped”; this parameter is used to estimate the proportion of electric driving in plug-in hybrids (PHEVs) and to more realistically determine their actual CO2 emissions. 

Hence the calculations and the warning from Transport & Environment: ACEA’s proposal “could cost the EU up to an additional €74 billion in oil imports between 2026 and 2035, significantly reducing the amount of crude oil that would otherwise be replaced by the use of electric cars if current rules remained unchanged.” Furthermore, this same set of proposals “could increase CO2 emissions from European cars by up to 2.4 gigatonnes between 2026 and 2050 compared to current legislation, the equivalent of over five years’ worth of emissions from the current EU car fleet.” 

In response to calls from the automotive industry, NGOs are urging the European Parliament and the Council to “maintain the current emission reduction targets for new cars and boost demand for electric vehicles, by supporting more ambitious electrification targets and excluding plug-in hybrids from the proposed regulation to decarbonise company car fleets.”